


Some people always cry at weddings

by epersonae



Series: Aftermath [5]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Baby!Magcretia, Everybody working out their issues, Referenced Past Drug Use, TBH too many relationships to list, Wedding, Wedding-appropriate drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 20:04:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11562366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epersonae/pseuds/epersonae
Summary: Lucretia avoids the crowd. Angus extracts a promise, and so does Kravitz, maybe. Some forgive, and some do not.





	Some people always cry at weddings

**Author's Note:**

> So I threw basically all my fic headcanons into this one (I moved the refs into the end notes), as well as headcanons I haven't written about but dig in other people's fic: Taako/Magnus/Kravitz and Lucretia/Maureen in particular.
> 
> Updated October 30, 2017: removes a reference to Neverwinter in order to make the wedding location canon-compliant.

The wedding was crowded: not too crowded for most of the guests -- all those BoB alumni and their families -- and certainly not for Killian and Carey, surrounded by loved ones. But too crowded for Lucretia, who kept being hugged and toasted by her former employees and studiously avoided by her former friends.

Except for Merle, of course: “You gotta take one turn on the dance floor!” He threw down the opening steps of his Legato Conservatory dance, and she smiled, but she also shook her head and patted his shoulder.

“Highchurch, are you talking to her again?”

She turned and fled when she heard Davenport approaching.

“Drew, honey, you gotta let it go”

She let their argument -- their _ongoing_ argument about _her_ \-- disappear into the din of the crowd. She stepped out onto a balcony. Unfortunately, someone else was already there, staring down into the city square.

“You were at the show I did right down there,” said Taako without looking at her. “The way you stared at me gave me the heebie-jeebies, and boy howdy was I already a hot mess.” He let out a soft sound that was almost a laugh. “Sazed and I got so wasted that night. Gods what a fight we had.” He shook his head. “ _Any_ way, enough reminiscing. I’m sure Krav is wondering where I’ve vanished to.”

He spun on his heel and went back into the hall.

* * *

For a long time, she leaned on the railing and looked out over the city. She tried to let the wedding party noise just wash over her, to not get caught up in memory or regret. She was not entirely successful.

A small voice broke into her reverie.

“Ma’am?”

“Angus.”

He walked out and stood beside her.

“I think Magnus is looking for you.”

She sighed.

“Giving me a little warning?”

“I thought you’d want to know…. Maybe it would be good if you….”

“Are you trying to get me to talk to Magnus, dear?”

“Well, ma’am….”

“You really can just call me Lucretia.”

He huffed. She looked down to see a familiar scrunched-up expression.

“What is it, Angus?”

“Are you going to tell anybody, ever?”

She blinked rapidly.

“Ma’am...Lucretia...mmmm...Mom?”

He was chewing on the corner of his bottom lip. She nodded and let out another long sigh.

“How long have you known?”

“Not as long as I should’ve. You know, in retrospect.”

She smiled.

“Everything’s obvious in retrospect, dear.”

“You’re going to tell him, though.”

“Mmmmmmmm…”

Angus took her hand.

“You have to tell the truth, ma’...Mom.”

“Or you’re just going to start calling me Mom in front of everybody, aren’t you?”

He let go of her hand and flung his arms around her.

“You took me in when I was all alone,” he mumbled into her side. “You were so sad and you still gave me a place to be. I didn’t have a mom before.”

She put a hand on his head. She couldn’t stop the tears.

“Oh Angus, dear, I’m so sorry.”

He pulled back and looked up at her, and tears were streaking his cheeks too, but his expression was oddly stern.

“Stop being sorry. Everybody knows you’re sorry. Just be…” His eyes welled up again. “Just be true? Promise?”

“I promise.”

He stepped back, and they shook hands.

“I didn’t want to have to cast Zone of Truth,” he said.

She smiled.

“Yes, let’s not do that.”

“So I can tell him you’re out here?”

She nodded, and he ran back into the hall.

* * *

“Champagne?” Magnus came out onto the balcony and held out a glass to her. She turned to him and his eyes widened just a bit, as she realized that her face was puffy from crying. “Lucretia? Are you ok?”

“Crying at weddings is a thing, isn’t it?” She took the glass and sipped a bit.

“Cool, cool, sure. Doesn’t seem like you, though.”

She took a long drink.

“I don’t know what’s _like me_ or not anymore.”

“Ain’t that the truth.”

“How are you holding up these days?” she asked.

He shrugged.

“Getting my head together. Figuring out who I am now. Y’know, fighting with Taako and Lup over who gets more Ango time….” He paused. “Huh. That kid, right? He looked a little teared-up too, ‘Cretia.”

She took a deep breath.

“So...um...Magnus. About Angus.”

“Yup.”

“So, yeah, he’s…”

“Uh-huh.”

“You already know, don’t you? That he’s our kid?”

“And that he knew too? Look, I’ve spent the last decade with half my head missing, but I’m not stupid, and y’know, once I got my memory back…. I can do math, Lucretia, and hell, I see my _mom_ in his face. And I see how he looks at you, I hear him holding back, holding his breath when the others talk shit.”

She closed her eyes.

“I mean, more than anything, I keep trying to understand how you just gave him away. I didn’t want to ask, but I’ve wanted to know.”

“It was the only thing I could think to do. McDonald, he was one of the first, when it was just me and Maureen and Lucas, and he said he’d raise the boy as his grandson. It was the safest thing I could think of. I didn’t know, when you found him, I didn’t know it was him until he was already inoculated.”

“That must’ve been something.”

She laughed.

“Hi, welcome to the moon,” she said, “Oh and by the way I’m actually your mom.”

“And that guy who keeps playing keep-away with your books? He’s your dad.”

“What a mess.”

“Lucretia, that almost didn’t…. You could’ve….”

She gulped down the rest of the champagne.

“What was I thinking?”

“You thought you could go it alone. You thought you had to. And then, y’know, the Light, the craveability.”

“I can’t just blame it on the thrall, Magnus. Something broke in me before that.”

“A hundred years of running from the apocalypse? Sure. We’re all a little broken.”

She turned to look at him.

“How is Taako, really? I know he’s still furious with me. I don’t ever expect…. But I do want to know how he’s doing.”

“I mean, he’s always been a bit of a mess? It’s complicated with him and Lup, which sucks, but Kravitz seems good for him?” He rubbed the back of his head, a gesture that she still found infinitely endearing. “Like, for a guy who’s literally the agent of Death, he’s a really sweet dude?” A bit of a shy smile played across his face.

“Oh, shiiiiiit,” she said. “You guys are…. Wow. You’re hooking up with Taako again?” She grinned.

He looked down, blushing.

“Wow. Ok. This is the best thing I’ve heard in so long. And with Kravitz? Wow, that’s kinky, Magnus.”

“I dunno, you think?”

“Maggie, you big goof. I think it’s about damn time.”

“Oh, you’re a fine one to talk. Anybody in your life since… Uh, that thing at the Chug ‘N Squeeze?”

“Ugh, that. I’m still mortified. And no. I’m not exactly the fooling around type.”

“Don’t give me that Madame Director tone.”

“I don’t know how to _date_ , Magnus. I spent a hundred years in the closest relationships any human has ever known, and then I fucked it up to spend a decade turning myself into a solitary madwoman running a secret paramilitary organization. Oh, not to mention having and ruining a relationship with the most brilliant scientist in the history of Faerun. Where does one even go from there?”

“Well, you could come visit once in awhile. Have some dinner? And then we’ll see how it goes?”

She tilted her head to the side and looked up at him. It still startled her, sometimes, how different he looked with the scars and the beginning of wrinkles and grey, and yet how he was still Magnus who she’d known and loved since she was barely out of her teens.

“Are you asking me out, Magnus Burnsides?”

He smiled slowly, then ran his thumb across her cheek.

“I might be. I haven’t decided yet.”

“I’m still so sor--”

He put his finger on her lips.

“Cut it out, Lucretia. I know. And I was mad, almost as mad as Taako, I think. And then there wasn’t a lot of time to think, and I was pretty focused on Fischer and Junior? Since then, I guess I’ve been re-evaluating, well, a lot of things. And so I decided that I forgave you, even if you didn’t ask me to.”

“I’m asking you.”

“I already said it.”

“Say it again?” Her eyes flooded with tears. He held her face in his hands.

“Lucretia, I forgive you.”

She collapsed against his chest.

“Thank you.”

“Any time.” He hugged her tight. “Hey, so. Let’s say we go out there on the dance floor? For old times’ sake?”

“For new times.”

“That’s even better.”

He let her go, and she wiped her face with the back of her hand at first, but then he handed her a comically large handkerchief from his back pocket instead. Once she’d cleaned herself up, she let him take her hand, and together they walked into the hall, back into the joyous noise of a wedding. The wedding of two people she had introduced, and wasn’t that something to celebrate?

* * *

The party had pretty much wound down; the brides had departed, and only a few guests remained, most of them sitting and chatting, picking at the remnants of the buffet. The music was slow and mellow, with a handful of couples swaying slowly out on the dance floor. Lup and Barry were leaned up against one another, just swaying gently, their hands on each others’ hips. Similarly, too, Magnus and Taako were slow-dancing together.

Lucretia had her feet up on a bench. Angus had his nose deep in a book. And between them sat Kravitz, the Grim Reaper, emissary of the Raven Queen, with his tie loosened and his shoes kicked off, eating a piece of cake.

“I kept my side of the bargain,” he said. “I never told Taako. About your death count? Dunno if that was the right thing, though. Didn’t work out quite how you figured, did it?”

“Not at all,” said Lucretia. Angus’ eyes flicked up from his book. “Probably better that way.”

“Most certainly.” His red gaze shifted from the pair on the dance floor to look her in the eye. “So maybe let’s stay away from meddling with cosmic fate?”

“I think I can do that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for encouraging me, Wooden Ducks Anonymous. I swear to Lady Istus that the next thing I write will be less angsty!
> 
> Callbacks to my own goddamn fic:  
> [Coke!Taako](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11540727)  
> [Angus as baby!Magretia](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11426418)  
> [Lucretia under the thrall](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11500614)  
> [The thing at the Chug N' Squeeze](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11374905) (explicit, also really depressing)  
> [Kravitz and Lucretia talk about her death count](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11410356)


End file.
